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In an unprecedented and brilliant PR move today, President Bush accepted full responsibility for the poor response to the relief effort. During his press conference with the Iraqi president, he had these words:

Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government. And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility. I want to know what went right and what went wrong. I want to know how to better cooperate with state and local government, to be able to answer that very question that you asked: Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack or another severe storm. And that's a very important question. And it's in our national interest that we find out exactly what went on and -- so that we can better respond.

One thing for certain; having been down there three times and have seen how hard people are working, I'm not going to defend the process going in, but I am going to defend the people who are on the front line of saving lives. Those Coast Guard kids pulling people out of the -- out of the floods are -- did heroic work. The first responders on the ground, whether they be state folks or local folks, did everything they could. There's a lot of people that are -- have done a lot of hard work to save lives.

And so I want to know what went right and what went wrong to address those. But I also want people in America to understand how hard people are working to save lives down there in not only New Orleans, but surrounding parishes and along the Gulf Coast.

Response

It's to see the president finally stepping up to the plate after 5 years in office. It's sad that it's taken this man this long to do so but he has. Now... where do we go from here? He's going to make sure the canal and levy systems are fully funded? Is going to help the poorest of the poor in Mississippi and Louisiana get out of poverty by making sure they have jobs and education and an environment conducive to providing a future of those higher standards or is it going to be more of the same like tax breaks to the oil companies and to the wealthiest in the nation who know better than to trickle down all their wealth into the masses? Is he going to rework NAFTA and CAFTA to make sure they are as amicable to U.S. workers as they are workers from say El Salvador? Will he work to equalize the trade deficit with China, even at the cost of irritating them? Just remember this, running things requires knowledge of the military cliche known as the 7 P's: Piss Poor Planning Promotes Piss Poor Performance. You get what you pay for in Bush's America.

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I think it comes down to a couple of things. First, they can't hide this, like so many other things because it's happening here in our own backyard, so to speak. There has been to much recent bad publicity over Shehan & then the rising oil prices (the thing that REALLY got him on peoples bad side). This SNAFU was too public and people were able to see the truth.The second thing is, his core support group is the Conservative Christians who will forgive nearly anything *if* the person is a 'good moral' person. Lets remember, much of them work on the idea that competence or intelligence is *bad* because if your one or both, you don't go to 'Gawd', cause you don't need help. He has been fogiven for actions that would have had any other president (including his father) impeached long ago, and the one thing I see consistently said by his supporters is "He's a good Moral man". To Quote Robert Heinlein, my favorite Author, "More people have died from the Efforts of Saints than by any group of Sinners."Funny to think that Clinton, who was reviled as Immoral, had the country running better than anyone else had in years.

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This disaster exposed the effects of decades-long tax cuts to the rich, and ignoring the educational and training needs of our poor. Bush taking responsibility is amazing, it is something I hear few republicans doing...but all his ideas to improve and rebuild New Orleans should have been in place long ago.

When a disaster occurs, it is the government's responsibility to help its citizens. It is not the responsibility of private donors or churches. I am still mad that W asked Clinton and Bush Sr. to help with fundraising efforts. The government should have paid for this.

Bush's behavior in office has been immoral. It is immoral to ignore the needs of our country's poor. It is immoral to deny our citizens healthcare. And it is immoral to take jobs away from them and send them to China, El Salvador, and Mexico. But the crazy religious right do not see it that way. They see abortion as immoral and that's about it. Well I think that republicans generally behave immorally toward the majority of Americans whom they disdain.